the waiting pool

It's a funny kind of thing, this waiting. I could have a baby tomorrow; it could be in four weeks. And once again I ask myself: What kind of system is this? Like, don't even cows know when they're about to give birth? I hope there is a suggestion box at the end of this whole pregnancy project. I've got some things to say.

When really, I ought to just appreciate this time, that I have this time to be not working (thank you, economy) and instead resting and working on the new novel (as I eke ever closer to having a complete draft!) and swimming and daydreaming. I feel as though I should be both prepared and alert and ready at all times and also that I should keep myself distracted.

Here are some of the week's best distractions, in case anyone else is in need of such a thing.

1) Sara Barron! A dear old friend of mine (Apple Tree Theatre Travelling Troupe, hello!) has had her book come out this week -- a collection of personal essays that is bound to make you laugh out loud. If you want to read bawdy and irreverent stories about dating, celebrities, and being a hilarious person in general, and I think you do, I highly recommend buying her book and/or coming to her book release party on Monday. I kind of wish I hadn't just read the book so I could read it again for the first time and snortingly laugh into my tea.

2) Italo Calvino's "The Daughters of the Moon" from the February 23rd New Yorker. What a weird and great story! The moon is old and busted, and so people decide to throw it away. "The moon seemed lost. Having abandoned the course of its orbit, it no longer knew where to go; it let itself be transported like a dry leaf." Young women disrobe and hitch rides to the trash heap, where the moon is deposited among all the other unwanted detritus of the city. I suddenly remember how much I love reading Calvino.

3) Walt & Skeezix, once again. I happily read one of these great, gorgeous Drawn & Quarterly collections of the old Gasoline Alley strips a while back, only to discover I had 2 (2!) more waiting patiently for me on my bookshelf when I was perusing it a few nights back for something that might capture my skittish interest. (This, after putting down several novels in a row. My mushy brain seems to find many things objectionable these days. It's like all my patience has been diverted to other systems, and when reading there are any number of slight offenses that are suddenly unforgivable. Plus, since this summer I've become a book-abandoner! Before then I never would read 1/3 of a way through a book and then sling it aside. But now, well.) So anyway, the sketchy little drawings and soothingly boring stories of the Gasoline Alley gang, Walt and his foundling baby, and their occasional road trips are right up my, ahem, alley.

4) Cat Dancers! The lovely ladies in the video store we live above recommended this documentary about a trio of performers who train and "dance" with large cats...don't google it or read anything about it, since everything online is blithely pocked with spoilers, but totally rent it! I'm such a sucker for documentaries about weird little subcultures, and this one is, well, pretty satisfyingly weird.

Now, to work on the novel, and then to swim. It really is a dreamy kind of existence, when I remember to think of it that way.